A garden hose is typically used to supply water to selected locations of a lawn or garden. It is accepted that one convenient method of storing a garden hose be by winding the garden hose onto a reel. It is desirable to guide a garden hose onto a reel so that the hose does not become entangled with a supporting portion on the hose storage apparatus. To this end, it is desirable to provide a guide which directs the garden hose onto the reel. The same guide directs removal of the garden hose from the reel. It may be appreciated that in many instances, the hose is simply pulled to cause the reel to unwind and thereby remove the hose. In the event that the application of a pulling force is to one side of the reel, the hose may be pulled off the reel, and thereby form kinks in the hose. If enough force is applied, the hose may be damaged at a kink.
The utilization of a guide with a garden hose is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,805,100, entitled, "Garden Hose Reel Construction", issued Sept. 3, 1957, to L. M. Shaver. The utilization of rollers with a hose is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,525,837, entitled, "Hose Guide" issued Feb. 10, 1925 to A. C. Walker et al. A hose reel having a guide with a roller is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 238,153, entitled, "Hose Reel", issued Feb. 22, 1881, to H. B. Piper. Rollers having a formed outer surface for engagement with a line are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 458,855, entitled, "Hawser-Guide", issued Sept. 1, 1891, to Fred Meinzer. The use of a separate storage area and a separate hose guide is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,246, entitled, "Hose Reel Mounting", issued Feb. 3, 1959, to F. P. Zierden.